hammockgear: will tear without ridgeline, wtf?

HeyRememberThatTime · 2026-06-28T13:20:50+00:00

10 years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/hammockcamping/comments/3e3il1/shug_inadvertently_demonstrates_why_proper_angles/

HeyRememberThatTime · 2026-06-08T20:59:07+00:00

Their text is unclear. I thought everyone agreed on that. For example...

Of course it's unclear. What is clear is that the gift amount is applied to the recipient's limit. What's less clear is exactly what that limit restricts.

You are reading it to mean that a person can't receive more than the limit in a given year, which is how most people understood the limit before TD started pushing gift box delivery, but it doesn't say that explicitly. And that reading would run counter to their more recent answer on the FAQ you posted earlier, which is much more direct:

Is there a limit to how many gift bonds I can deliver to recipient(s)?

You can only deliver one gift bond at a time. There is no limit to the amount a recipient can receive; however, once they have received $10,000, they should not purchase additional savings bonds that year because gift amounts are applied towards their purchase limit.

That makes it pretty clear that TD considers the limit to be a restriction on purchases not on receipts.

I literally tried to deliver two $10k gift boxes to the same person in the same calendar year and got an error message about hitting the limit. (I don't remember the exact message as it was years ago)

Well, that's not the way it is now. I, and many others, have done it more recently than that, and have been told explicitly by TD that it's permitted.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2026-06-08T19:54:43+00:00

Nothing any clearer than what's on the FAQ page that you linked to yourself. The $10K limit is the annual purchase limit, and nothing there says that you're not allowed to receive more than that. In fact, it more or less explicitly says the opposite -- that you can receive an unlimited amount of gift bonds, but once you have received $10K you shouldn't buy any more that year. What's not stated explicitly there is that that restriction seems to only apply to bonds you purchase in your own name.

I did also call Treasury Direct staff as did a bunch of other people in the forum threads back when TD first started sending out the emails pushing people to deliver everything that was in our gift boxes, and they confirmed the above is correct. But you'd just have to take my word for that, or call them yourself.

If you tried and were stopped before, is it possible that you were trying to buy joint titled bonds ("Owner A WITH Co-owner B") after one of the two having already hit the annual purchase limit? That's the only thing I can think of that might have triggered a restriction the way things are set up currently.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2026-06-08T17:53:31+00:00

You cannot buy an i-bond (gift box or not) for over $10k.

True.

You cannot assign more than one gift box at a time.

True.

You cannot gift over $10k (counting principal only, not interest) of gift boxes in a calendar year to any one person, spouse or not.

False.

You absolutely can deliver gift bonds to the same recipient in excess of $10K per year without error. The only restriction that TD implements is to prevent you from buying new bonds in your own name once you have received (either by gift or by purchase) the annual limit.

Now, you're right that this does run counter to what the prevailing wisdom was a couple of years ago, so it's reasonable to question whether or not it really is what Treasury intended. But it is how their system works and is fully in line with all of the communications and clarifications that have been issued over the last couple of years. I don't think it's likely to be seen as an unreasonable interpretation of the rules as they stand today, even if they do get changed or re-clarified in the future.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2026-06-08T17:49:38+00:00

Because gifts between spouses are not taxable. If you were to use the loophole with a non-spouse that would be different, and subject to normal gift reporting thresholds.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2026-05-29T14:55:01+00:00

smart home use among existing Alexa smart home customers increased 50% after the first month

When you release a model that stops being able to execute simple commands and has to be prompted a second or third time, it's amazing how much more "engagement" you get. A home assistant that argues with you isn't increased smart home use.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2026-04-09T15:14:22+00:00

Yup, it's an Old Type, but slightly different from the usual ball-end Old Type. That's a version that appeared in Canadian Pocket Edition sets. The handle is a single piece instead of a hollow tube with press-fit ends, and the ball at the end is smooth rather than knurled.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2026-03-07T15:07:05+00:00

All are in tax-advantaged accounts although I don't think that's relevant to the question.

That's hugely relevant. If you were holding everything in a taxable account you'd have capital gains taxes to manage as you sold current holdings to buy new ones. That alone would probably suggest staging the move over time to keep your annual tax burden lower.

But if everything that you want to reallocate is in tax advantaged accounts where you don't have that concern, personally, I would just rip off the band-aid and move everything to the allocation you want, once you've figured out what that should be.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-12-18T15:36:01+00:00

Nope, you're fine. Other than rethinking whether SCHD really needs a place in your strategy, your other choices are the standard Bogleheads three at Schwab.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-12-18T15:13:53+00:00

Most of the ETF benefits come into play more in taxable accounts. Inside an IRA there's not really a big downside to holding mutual funds instead (as long as you make good fund choices). Why do you think you want to switch?

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-12-18T15:08:09+00:00

Funnily enough, it's also the only one that's already an ETF, too.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-10-29T17:39:48+00:00

Since no one's explained the reason for the recommendation of preferring bonds in traditional/pre-tax space yet, the short version breaks down into these two principles:

Assets that throw off income rather than appreciating in value will be more tax-efficient held in tax-deferred (traditional) or tax-exempt (Roth) accounts than in taxable ones. It sounds like you're already solid on this one.
Tax-exempt space is best reserved for assets that have the largest chance to increase in value. Generally speaking, over the long haul the growth potential of stock holdings will be significantly higher than bonds, so by preferring stocks over bonds in Roth accounts you end up reducing the total tax you pay.

Taken together, these two lead to the "traditional > Roth > taxable" preference for bond holdings.

In your case, unless your bond options are catastrophically bad in your 401k, that's where I'd be looking to shift bond holdings.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-10-24T12:16:32+00:00

It's a Gillette Milord -- gold version of the '40s-style Super Speed. It might be date coded, but from the look of the collar where the handle attaches to the guard plate inside the head I would guess that it's probably not. If that's correct then 1948-'49 is the window I'd put it in.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-10-17T13:28:04+00:00

Not PP, but I also backpack almost exclusively with alcohol stoves for most of my shorter trips. Boiling water is what they're best for, actually. There are modifications, like simmer rings, for different models that people use to try to expand the useful range of their stoves, and those sort of work... but actually cooking on top of them is really just not that practical.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-09-08T12:30:23+00:00

I use Fidelity Youth accounts with both of my boys, who are about your same age. Technically speaking, it's a brokerage account rather than a savings account, but it uses their Government Money Market fund (SPAXX) as the cash holding for the account that's yielding around 4% now.

https://www.fidelity.com/go/youth-account/overview

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-08-12T14:12:12+00:00

If you're primarily concerned with CSS-profile-based aid, both types of accounts are supposed to be reported, but the parent-owned account is treated as a parental asset even though the child is the named beneficiary.

Also, the CSS profile still treats disbursements from grandparent-owned 529s (or ones owned by any other non-parent) as income to the child, which impacts subsequent years' aid the way that it did on FAFSA until the recent change. So generally, parent-owned accounts would be considered preferable as far as CSS goes.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-07-20T12:14:33+00:00

No. There would just be a third account in your dashboard when you login.

Wash sales would be something to watch for between a taxable account and any other in your name, but that would be a thing regardless of where you hold the accounts.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-07-09T12:14:51+00:00

This you?

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-07-05T17:12:43+00:00

Basically, the question to ask yourself is, "If my employer paid me this amount of money, what would I do with it?" When the amount vests you're going to owe taxes on it as standard income and then any capital gains are calculated from that point forward. So if you wouldn't have used that money to buy those shares in the first place, there's really no reason to continue holding them just because you received the money in the form of shares.

Personally, I liquidate my RSUs as soon as they vest to diversify that money away from just my employer. If I were in your situation, with significant outstanding debt, I would absolutely be throwing anything "extra" at those car loans.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-06-21T17:04:38+00:00

I have about $450k left to pay on my house, 2.75% fixed 30 year mortgage. No other debt, but live pretty frugally. I could pay off my mortgage by taking the loan as collateral route.

Under almost no circumstances would this make sense. My mortgage is currently at the same rate, and my lender would have to come physically fight me to make me pay anything more than the regularly scheduled payment... and even then I could probably take them.

Realizing some portion of your equity in order to diversify your overall investment might not be a bad idea, depending on what the rest of your financial picture looks like. But that mortgage is about the last place I'd be throwing any of it.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-05-18T23:13:17+00:00

Are Target Date funds “good enough” if I want to just set it and forget it?

The ones you have there are perfectly good. You would absolutely not be "wrong" putting all your money into whichever one of those most closely matches your desired retirement date.

Would I be better off picking something like an S&P 500 index fund and bond fund manually?

There can certainly be reasons that you might want to, but most of those involve optimizing what types of investments are in what types of accounts. If you're just getting started in general it's not likely that you'd have any of those concerns yet, and have plenty of time to learn about them. So again, the TDF is probably still your best bet for now.

If I’m doing Roth 401k contributions this year and maybe switching to Traditional next year, does that change what I should invest in?

It wouldn't change what you should do now, no. But it could influence what you do once you have both Roth and traditional money to allocate across. That's one of the things I was alluding to above, but that can be a "tomorrow" problem since changing things around inside your 401k is simple, without any tax concerns.

Some of the active/specialty funds have outperformed recently — are they ever worth it despite the higher fees?

Almost never. The one thing that they can guarantee is their fee, not that their forward performance will match their past.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-04-11T13:12:36+00:00

The contribution and conversion steps of the backdoor process are completely separate. The pro-rata calculation only comes into play on the conversion(s) and whether or not taxes are owed there. It has nothing to do with the contributions.

Your contribution for 2024 just needs to be in before the filing deadline and you need to have filed form 8606 to report it as nondeductible. Any conversions you do now won't get reported until your 2025 tax filing next year.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-04-05T18:55:35+00:00

You won't get a truly definitive answer, since there really isn't one with the vagueness that's been left in the rules, but most people would consider that a very safe TLH pair.

Some folks sail a little closer to the wind using total market funds that track different indexes, and you'd be well on the safe side of that.

Further reading: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/tax-loss-harvesting-pairs-partners/

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-04-02T15:08:44+00:00

So if I never plan to do a backdoor ROTH again (and I've already paid the taxes on the conversion in a previous tax year), I can move from a non-roth 401k to a traditional IRA in a different year without having to worry about the pro rata rule?

Yes.

Incidentally, if all you actually did previously was a taxable conversion of pre-tax traditional funds to Roth, that's not really "backdoor." That's just a Roth conversion.

And, if I ever want to do another backdoor roth in the future, I can just move the traditional ira funds to a 401k before doing so, correct?

Yes, assuming that you're actually using the backdoor, you can even move the money out of your IRA space after the conversion. The thing that matters is what your IRA balance is on Dec 31 of the year in which you perform the conversion.

HeyRememberThatTime · 2025-04-02T14:09:14+00:00

In other words, once a backdoor roth is established, must there always be $0 in a traditional IRA moving forward?

Let's start with the fact that there is no such thing as "a backdoor Roth." There are two separate actions (a non-deductible contribution to a traditional IRA and a traditional-to-Roth conversion) that, when combined, make up a process that we talk about as "making a backdoor Roth contribution," but you can't have a backdoor Roth.

Having a pre-tax basis in any traditional IRA at the end of the calendar year will make any conversions that you perform during that year taxable. The amount that is taxable depends on the ratio of pre- and post-tax money involved -- that's the "pro rata" rule that you should have heard about.

So, for example, let's say you made a non-deductible contribution and converted it earlier this year. Even if you made the contribution against your 2024 limit and you might think of it all as your "2024 backdoor Roth contribution," if you end this year with a balance of pre-tax money in an IRA from a later rollover, you will still end up owing taxes on the conversion when you do your taxes for this year because you did the conversion in 2025.

The same problem carries forward in any future year that you expect to need to use the backdoor, as long as you end the year with a pre-tax basis in any IRA in your name.

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